D.B. Cooper - NORJAK - Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 Skyjacking FBI & DOJ Files

D.B. Cooper - NORJAK - Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 Skyjacking FBI & DOJ Files

This collection contains 39,261 pages of files. Some files were not released until March 2025. All pages have gone through Optical Character Recognition, and all computer recognizable text is keyword searchable.

NORJAK (Northwest Hijacking) was the cryptonym given by the FBI to the investigation of the November 24, 1971, skyjacking of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, by "D. B. Cooper." This case remains the only unsolved American commercial airline hijacking.

On November 24, 1971, paying by cash, a man who gave his name as Dan Cooper at the Northwest Orient Airline's ticket counter at Portland International Airport and paid for a ticket for Flight 305. Later, a law enforcement officer erroneously referred to him as "D.B." and the initials stuck.

While the flight was on its way from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington, the still officially unidentified man commandeered the flight.  "Cooper" gave a flight attendant a note indicating that he had brought an explosive device onto the plane. He demanded $200,000 and four parachutes. He released the 38 hostages for the ransom.

The plane left Seattle bound for Mexico City. Approximately 30 minutes later, somewhere between Seattle, WA and Reno, NV, while wearing one of the parachutes, the hijacker opened the plane's aft door, deployed the stairs, and jumped out the back of the plane.

Then one of the longest and most exhaustive investigations in FBI history began.

This collection contains:

U.S. Attorney’s Case File - Western District of Washington: Case CR-0451

466 pages from the 1971 U.S. District Attorney’s Cases for the Western District of Washington: Case CR-0451, for the skyjacking case involving skyjacker with the alias “D.B. Cooper.”

The file reports on Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305.  Covers issues involving the case and the statute of limitations. Comments about public opinions about the case. Information about experiments conducted by the U.S. Air Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to determine details about the event.

Most probative is a 1972, 336-page report of the incident and investigation. With sections with the following headings:

Description of the Hijacking

Interviews With Witnesses, Crew, Northwest Airlines Employees at Portland and Passengers.

Logs By Northwest Orient Airlines, Seattle and Minneapolis

FAA Tapes and Recordings

Parachutes

Ransom Money

Weather

Course of the Aircraft (With Maps)

Search Area (With Maps)

Boeing 727 - Technical Data

Experiment With Air Stairs

Search of Aircraft at Reno

Search of Flight Path

Portland International Airport

Investigation At Airports, Flying Clubs, Flight Schools, Parachute Clubs

Airline Ticket

Black Snap-On Tie and Tie Tack

Physical Evidence

Artist’s Sketch

Descriptive Data

Composite Description

FBI Files

36,628 pages of FBI files on the investigation of the NORJAK case, dating from November 1971 to May 1992.

D.B. Cooper Skyjacking FBI Files Released March 2025

789 pages of FBI files released in March 2025. Files show that the FBI was interested in men who had advanced training and experience in skydiving, or had suffered injures consistent with injuries that might have been suffered by the hijacker after his egress from diverted Flight 305, or those who had names or aliases that were similar to "Dan Cooper." Including a professional bowler.  Two men originally of strong interest were cleared, one because of significant balding, the other because of a pot belly.

Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. FBI Files

1,378 pages of FBI files on Richard Floyd McCoy Jr.

Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. (1942 - 1974) on April 7, 1972, hijacked United Airlines Flight 855, flying from Newark, New Jersey to Los Angeles. McCoy, after receiving a $500,000 ransom, parachuted from the plane by exiting mid-flight through a stairway at the back of the plane. McCoy was arrested two days later.  In his house $499,970 in cash was found.

On August 10, 1974, while serving a 45-year sentence at the Federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, McCoy escaped using a fake handgun made out of dental paste.

Three months later, on November 9, 1974, the FBI found McCoy in Virginia Beach, Virginia. McCoy opened fire on FBI agents and was killed by their return fire.